Dorade wins 2013 Transpac

Oct 2, 2013

By john snyder

At 83 years old, Olin Stephens’ classic yacht Dorade still has what it takes for offshore racing.

Sharon Green

Dorade, Olin Stephens’ iconic 83-year-old wooden yawl finished the 2,225-nm Transpac Race from Los Angeles to Hawaii in 12 days, five hours, 23 minutes, 18 seconds — a day short of the yacht’s 1936 run. Dorade won its division and the overall King Kalakaua Trophy.

The classic 52-foot yacht’s rating resulted in an adjusted time of five days, 12 hours, 20 minutes and 55 seconds, beating Roy Disney’s 70-foot Pyewacket whose adjusted time was five days, 14 hours, 51 minutes and 21 seconds. Pyewacket finished in an actual time of eight days, 15 hours, 41 minutes and three seconds.

Dorade’s skipper was 31-year-old Hannah Jenner, an experienced ocean racer from Britain who came from the world of high-tech modern racing machines and not wood, bronze, and varnish.

Dorade, hull No. 7, was designed in 1929 by Olin Stephens for Sparkman & Stephens of New York. The boat first made history in 1931 with Stephens, then 21, and his brother Rod when together they won that year’s Transatlantic Race.

With the remarkable win of this year’s Transpac, Dorade’s current owner, Matt Brooks, plans an ambitious race schedule for the boat with hopes of competing in the 2014 Newport Bermuda Race as well as the 2015 Transatlantic and Fasnet races. Brooks has said he wants to see other classics like Dorade competing in modern races rather than being relegated to being museum pieces at the dock.